"This increase in computing capability will give DoD scientists and engineers the ability to solve complex, mission-critical, physics problems in a timeframe that can provide the data necessary to better assist our staff in solving some of our nation's most complex defense challenges and solutions," said Charles J. Nietubicz, Director of the ARL MSRC. "With the combined supercomputer upgrades, the ARL MSRC also becomes the first and only center in the DoD's High Performance Computing Modernization Office providing greater than 10 terabytes (10,000 GB) of memory - making this deployment a major accomplishment for our organization and benefit to the users."

The 2,304-CPU cluster will consist of 1186 IBM eServer e325 nodes, each equipped with dual-2.2 GHz AMD Opteron processors, a Myrinet interconnect and will run SUSE Linux. This new system is part of the HPCMO's "Technology Insertion 2004," an initiative to modernize DoD's high performance computing capabilities

"It is now more important than ever that the DoD is equipped with the most sophisticated and agile systems," says Dave Turek, Vice President of Deep Computing for IBM. "IBM worked closely with the DoD to develop a powerful, Linux based, state-of-the-art supercomputing solution that would meet their needs and offer the reliability and ease of management to significantly increase the organization's overall performance in the breakthrough defense technologies."

About the Army Research Laboratory Major Shared Resource Center Established in 1996, the ARL MSRC helps the DoD focus and exploit high-performance computing technology for military advantage across the battlespace. This customer-focused, world-class computational facility supports DoD's research and development, science and technology, and test and evaluation communities with some of the world's newest, scalable, parallel computers. These supercomputers feature shared and distributed memory architectures from multiple vendors, including IBM, SGI, and Linux NetworX. Researchers use of the ARL MSRC facilities includes physics based modeling and simulation of more lethal, more survivable weapon systems, exploring new chemical reactions, analyzing sensors and experimental data, and developing new composite materials.

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